Sylvia's Journal

We have found the source of our wormy infestation and I am happy to say it had nothing to do with African games or pieces of the devil. And yes, Sita can come home now and will not be attacked in her sleep by the white wiggly things whose names, Axel told me, I should not use on this public site; too shameful.

At the end of the afternoon I was hanging curtains in our living room to help keep the heat in. We had, insanely, gone out in the snow storm to get the curtain rods for which we had to pass several shopping centers that seemed not to suffer from the weather. Back home I set right to work.

After I had hung the last curtain I was admiring my handwork when I observed several little white things crawling up to the top of one of the curtains. The source was right below it: a 40 pound bag with birdseed that was one of the few things not removed from the living room. It was crawling with the beasties, like a factory producing ever more, inexhaustible. After a few more shrieks from Axel as he dragged the bag out of the house, leaving a trail of the wriggly things (and puppy Chicha so very excited) – we declared the house free from the infestation and can invite other people to come and visit again. The protein-enriched bird food sits outside in a snow bank and will be shared with nature for the final cleanup.

We called Tessa with the good news and then went caroling at the Caulkins with a cast of thousands, including an entire class. It is a longstanding Christmas tradition and the singing accompanied by some serious musicians of all kind. We saw several people who we don’t see much and who still think of us as airplane crash survivors which somewhat limits the conversation (you look great – yes, thank you – we are fine now, mostly, or: wow – I can’t believe how you look – we talked about it at home – and the kids can’t believe it (neither can we). We made it to the intermission after which the standing became a little too much – that’s one of the after effects that does not seem to go away.

And now I am looking out over the winter wonderland that was produced during nearly more than 30 hours of snowfall. We could try the cross-country skis today and see if we can still do this; it is one sport we have not tried yet since we got back on our feet. Getting on a bicycle to Meeting today is probably not a good idea.